LEYDEN — While thousands around the county stopped what they were doing on Monday afternoon to watch the solar eclipse, Big Red, a dairy cow in Leyden, decided that a major scientific event would be just as good a time as any to give birth. And so she did.
The calf that was born, owned by farmer Ann Zaveruha, was found in the pasture right after the peak of the eclipse. Zaveruha, who was having a party with her grandchildren and friends for the eclipse, settled on the name Celeste E. Clipse for the calf, which was born with a unique blaze right above her eye in the shape roughly of a crescent moon.
She said those at the party saw all of the cows come down from the pasture during the eclipse, except Big Red, so several of them went looking for her, thinking she might have given birth. When they found her, at about 2:45 p.m., there was Celeste.
She said her daughter, Hannah Parker, and a family friend, Chelsea Reynolds, selected the name, which they felt was apt, given the circumstances. Zaveruha usually lets her grandchildren select the names of the new calves, so they also had to agree.
Celeste will be used as breeding stock for Zaveruha, just like her mom Big Red.
Experts might be skeptical to the idea that celestial forces had any involvement in the calf’s birth.
Tom Whitney, president of the Amherst Astronomy Association, noted that the dimming caused by the eclipse was hardly on par with a cloud going over the sun.
“I have serious doubts as to whether it had any effect,” he said. “But I don’t know. I wasn’t there — I’ve never delivered a cow.”
Zaveruha said she’s had plenty of cows with white faces like Celeste’s, but has never seen a marking like the one above her eye.
She has a theory about that crescent shape, which she says must have happened during the eclipse. She said the sun was about 65 percent covered, which left about a 35 percent crescent shape exposed, which she says matches Celeste’s marking.
“She was branded by the sun,” Zaveruha quipped.
Reach Miranda Davis
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